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In June 2022, the Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, effectively returning the abortion issue back to the states. For nearly a half-century before, the country had lived under Roe v. Wade. Overturning Roe (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) shifted the cultural winds in welcome but unexpected ways. One of the pro-life movement’s main goals finally became a reality. And abortion proponents in the Democratic Party angrily vowed revenge. 

The fallout from that moment more than three years ago could not have been easier to predict. Democrats experienced an infusion of energy, the kind that comes from suddenly becoming the underdog. But that was not the source of the surprise. Once the dust settled, it became apparent that the Republican Party and the pro-life movement as a whole were not quite ready for a post-Dobbs world. Then a stunning, nagging question began to emerge: Is the GOP still the party of life? 

The black and white nature of politics naturally leads to the assumption that if one side is for something, then the other side is against it. This template fits well over many issues. But when it comes to abortion, the decades-old equation no longer works very well. And it’s not because the Democratic Party has become sympathetic to the plight of unborn souls. On the contrary, Democrats are as consistently anti-life as they’ve ever been. It is the Republican half of the equation where the fervor has noticeably diminished, and the staunchly held ideals have waned. Once upon a time, support for unborn life served as a guiding principle for the Right. Now, the main criteria is whether such a principle will “harm” Republicans at the polls. 

It is a dispiriting evolution, to say the least. And it has been heavily, perhaps even fully, induced by a GOP dominated by personalities above all else. 

A main feature of Donald Trump‘s 2016 campaign for president was the promise that he would appoint pro-life justices to the Supreme Court. Every candidate in the crowded........

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